Australian driver Will Power dropped a place in the IndyCar series standings after finishing third at the Edmonton Indy on Sunday but at least narrowed the gap to leader Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Brazilian Helio Castroneves held off a charging Takuma Sato to take victory in the 75-lap race at Edmonton’s City Centre Airport circuit in Canada and move to second place in the standings ahead of Power.
Series leader, American Hunter-Reay, came home in seventh and angrily claimed that Power should’ve been penalised for cutting him off as the Queenslander exited pit lane early in the race.
Hunter-Reay, who qualified for pole but started 11th because of an engine change penalty, was furious when no penalty was called after a review by race control.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! That is absolutely … ridiculous,” he yelled over the radio during the race.
Castroneves’ second victory of the season, and one that snapped Hunter-Reay’s three-race win streak, came after a gamble from his Penske Racing crew to head into the pits early.
Power grabbed the lead after Alex Tagliani also pitted but surrendered the advantage to make his late pit stop and Castroneves fought off Sato over the final 15 laps to pick up the win.
Power was happy with his third-placed result, which was his best finish since his win at Brazil in April.
Although teammate Castroneves jumped ahead of him in the standings, Power’s deficit to Hunter-Reay was cut from 35 points to 26 with four races remaining.
“Awesome day, very good day,” said Power.
An engine change after qualifying cost Power 10 spots on the starting grid, so he came from 17th to finish third – his fourth podium finish at Edmonton in four years.
Although Hunter-Reay managed a top-10 finish, he wasn’t pleased because Castroneves and Power gained ground.
“We didn’t lose too much, I guess, but when two guys who are fighting for the championship finish on the podium, it is not very satisfying,” Hunter-Reay said.
“We have a lot of racing to go, we need to be strong across the board. This was definitely a bruise today, but it didn’t knock us down, by any means.”
Sato’s career-best second-place finish had team owner Bob Rahal joking afterwards.
“Helio is tough,” Rahal said. “He starts blocking when he picks up his rental car at the airport.”
Australian Ryan Briscoe was eighth while Scott Dixon was 10th, which leaves the New Zealander fourth in the standings.
